Rotunda presses ahead with critical care wing development

The Rotunda Hospital in Dublin has commenced the process of selecting a design team to lead the development of a new critical care wing for the hospital. According to tender documents: “With the likelihood of the hospital remaining on campus for the next 15-to-20 years, the Rotunda needs to upgrade its ageing infrastructure in order to continue to provide services to women and babies in an appropriate environment.” The documents outline the hospital’s requirements to address its most urgent critical care and clinical infrastructural deficiencies.

These include: A new intensive care unit together with other areas, such as outpatients, ward accommodation, “labour and delivery”, and various additional clinical and support accommodation.

“These requirements will be brought together as a project to form a new critical care wing for the hospital,” according to the document.

“In the normal way for a project of this scale and complexity, any future development at the Rotunda Hospital must be designed in an orderly manner, reflecting the requirement to protect the ongoing clinical activity on the wider hospital campus.

“Consideration will therefore be given to the most appropriate approach to deliver the project requirements, while protecting current activity and future development potential on the hospital campus. The critical care wing development will be set out as part of an overall coherent and ordered plan for the campus, and the design team will be required to advise on the most appropriate approach in that context.”

The principal services sought in the tender include: Architectural services; quantity surveying; mechanical and electrical engineering; and civil and structural engineering. Following the conclusion of this competition, the services of all design team disciplines will be provided together, led by the architectural consultant who will act as the design team leader. Interested parties were to issue their submissions by the end of May.

The Medical Independent recently reported that roof damage at the Rotunda’s colposcopy/administration building represented a “major” infrastructural risk as it housed the main IT server room. In addition, a cap remained on admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit to mitigate infection risks associated with constrained infrastructure.